Phar Kim Beng

Asian Angle | Why are foreign leaders snubbing Najib ahead of Malaysia’s election?

Friends from abroad just don’t seem as friendly as they once were for the Malaysian prime minister

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The Prime Minister’s Office isn’t expecting high-level visits any time soon. Photo: EPA

Phar Kim Beng

Published: 3:03pm, 30 Mar 2018Updated: 6:05pm, 17 Dec 2019

As election season enters full swing in Malaysia, Prime Minister Najib Razak appears to be running low on foreign friends.

There has been a distinct lack of VIPs from the region, or the rest of the world, who have pledged to visit Malaysia and give Najib a boost as he prepares his United Malays Nationalist Organisation (Umno) party and the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition for an election that could be called in a matter of weeks or in August at the latest.

Many analysts predict this will be the toughest election yet for Najib and Barisan Nasional to hold on to its stout majority in parliament as scandals have seemed to follow since his re-election in 2013.

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They include: the 1MDB fiasco, which involved international investigations over money-laundering allegations regarding a state-controlled fund; the exposure of corruption at the Federal Land Development Authority; and a last-ditch attempt to introduce a “fake news” bill that critics say is nothing more than an attempt to silence Najib’s detractors, including the opposition.

There has also been speculation that Najib’s government engaged the tainted analytics firm Cambridge Analytica, the company ensnared in global controversy for skewing votes in the US election, Brexit and Kenyan presidential election, although the prime minister has vehemently denied this.

Malaysian businessman Jho Low, who was accused in the 1MDB scandal, and Paris Hilton. File photo

The scandals certainly haven’t endeared Najib to his foreign counterparts. The governments of Singapore and Indonesia have collaborated with the US justice department on 1MDB, including when Jakarta allowed the FBI to seize Malaysian businessman Jho Law’s US$250 million yacht, The Equanimity, off the waters of Bali as part of the investigation.